OCR Text |
Show 54 THE CHARM OF NATVRE. in danger of-being worsted, he "touched the earth;" and the instant he touched that, he became renovated, and more mighty than his antagonist. So also, when we are worn out bybusines:;;, when we are exhaustecl by study, when we "don't know what to do with ourselves'' with listless idleness; nay, even when our limbs are pained, and our temples throbbino- with disease if we would "touch the earth,"hold converse with nature for a little, in the way of knowledge, we would find relief in all cases, and renovation in many. If we examine the matter aright and carefully, we shall find that at all ages, and under every circumstance of life, it is really nature which sweetens our cup, and that, skilfully used, there is. n~ gall in life so bitter as that nature cannot turn It mto honey. Look at a little child on the meadow,-no matter though it has been born in the very heart of a city, and seen nothing but brick walls, and crowds, and rolling carriages, and pavements, and dust; let it once get its feet upon the sward, and it will toss away the most costly playthings, and never gather enough of the buttercups, and daisies, and other wild flowers which prank the sod. And if it shall start · a little bird, which bounces onward with easy wing, as if it were leaping from portion to portion of the sightless air, how it will stretch its little hands, and shout, and hurry on to catch the living treasure, which, in its young but perfectly natural estimation, is of more value than the wealth of the world. And if the bird perches on the hedge, or the tree, and sings its sweet song of security, "the little finger will at once be held up by the little ear," and the other hand will be extended, with the palm backwards, as if a sign were given by nature herself for the world to listen and admire. Infants are, in , truth, our schoolmasters in the study of nature; and though we might feel our experience compromised in learning wisdom of them, there is no reason why PLEASURE OF YOUTH. 55 we shou~d turn o~r wisdom into folly, by refusing to learn a h.ttle happmes.s. Grant th at age and gravity are as w1se as yon w11l, the palm of happiness must be a~arded to early youth,-to those sportive days and mghts of sound repose, before the buriness of the w?rld has come upon us, and absorbed all our attentiO?. No~, as the aim and obj ect of all that we ~o IS hr1.ppmess, why should not we make the ~appm~ss of our youth a store through life, and an mc~easm&' ~tore, as well as our knowledge? Our b~d1ly activity and pl~asure h.ave their periods: they wax and they wane, JUst as IS the case with matter and all the 9u~lities of ~atter; but happiness, like knowle~ge, Is. m the mmd, and they should strike hands h~~ twm-brothers at our ?irth, and 1~ever quit us, or ga~n upon e~ch other, till they brmg us to those .regwns m which both shall be in maturity, and our bhss perfect. ~n ou: business or pr?fessio~, ~e cannot ca-rry the ~hild with us throug-h life. L1fe IS a succession of mferences, the f:uits of experience; and in it we must. have the w1sdom of age to give counsel, and the v1g:our of manhood to carry that conn.sel into e~ecutwn. But still, while we counsel with all our Wisdom, and execute with all our might we are like Antreus wrestling; and if we come n~t down and touch the earth, we shall be, as Antreus was when prevented f:om that, overcome and vanquished. So that, even 111 order to w<?rk proper1y and pleasantly as r!1en, we should contmue to play like children; and tf ~ur play-hours be shorter and farther between they will be sweeter, because they will always hav~ the freshness of novelty. The valne of thing.s never strikes us so forcibly as w~en we are depnved of them ; and if we were to th~nk how sad an inro.ad would be made upon our happmess were we depnved of only a smal1 portion 1 of nature, or of one of those senses which were given to us for. the purpose of knowing it, we would |